Wayne Davis II Breaks A&M Hurdle Record for NCAA Indoor Silver

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Texas A&M’s Wayne Davis II broke the Aggie school record in the 60 hurdles as his time of 7.59 earned him silver at the NCAA Indoor Championships held in the Randal Tyson Track Center on Saturday.

With 30 points the Texas A&M men finished in fourth place amid the team scoring. Arkansas won the men’s title with 74 points with Florida second at 59 while Wisconsin finished third with 33 points.

The Aggie women scored 18 points to place 12th in team scoring. Oregon won its fourth consecutive NCAA Indoor women’s team title with 56 points while Kansas was second at 44 and LSU finished third with 43 points.

“I’m never pleased with getting beat,” stated Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “This group is a talented group of men and we had some unfortunate things happen. But we still had a good meet and finished fourth with the men, so we can’t be too disappointed. This group is going to be very good during the outdoor season.”

Florida’s Eddie Lovett won the 60 hurdle race in a NCAA Indoor meet record time of 7.50, breaking the mark of 7.51 set by Aries Merritt of Tennessee in 2006. Davis registered his second personal best time this indoor season in capturing another NCAA runner-up finish. He also placed second in the 110 hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor meet last June.

Aggie Chris Pinnock, who ran 7.60 twice in NCAA Indoor competition in 2002 and 2003, held the A&M school record. Davis lowered his previous best time of 7.65 from a SEC runner-up finish to Lovett. Third place in the NCAA final was a 7.60 by Clemson’s Spencer Adams.

“I wanted to run faster, but I’m pretty happy with the time and breaking the school record,” stated Davis. “After the SEC race I was confident I could challenge Eddie here in the NCAA final. Things didn’t quite work out like I wanted them to.

“I just like the thought that I’m going to have a big picture of myself on the back wall of our indoor stadium for setting a school record. That’s all I’ve been waiting for.”

Donique’ Flemings set a career best of 8.11 seconds in claiming fourth place in the 60 hurdles. Flemings, who placed sixth in this meet a year ago, came into the 2013 version tied for the 15th position.

Baylor’s Tiffany McReynolds and Clemson’s Brianna Rollins led the field early. Rollins cruised to the victory in 7.79 while McReynolds finished second in 7.96. Jasmin Stowers of LSU placed third with an 8.08 just ahead of Flemings.

“I’m glad I ran a PR and took fourth,” noted Flemings. “It’s kind of hard running on the outside (lane 8), since I couldn’t really see anybody. I got better from the semifinal to the final, so that’s promising. I wanted to score points for my team. Now I’m expecting big things during the outdoor season.”

Favored to win the 400, Deon Lendore placed sixth overall with a 46.10 after finishing third in his section. Houston’s Errol Nolan claimed the win with a 45.75 in the same section Lendore ran while Oregon’s Mike Berry won the first section in 45.83 and placed second overall.

Lendore led the field of the second section through the first 200 with a split of 21.32 seconds. As the field of four sprinters came out of the final curve, Lendore wasn’t able to maintain the lead.

“We knew we had a little bit of a situation with Lendore following his run on Friday,” said Henry. “He has a calf issue right now, so we couldn’t run him on the mile relay after the 400 final. All of a sudden we are running one leg short in the relay.”

Without Lendore available for the 4 x 400 relay the Aggies used a foursome of Ricky Babineaux (46.87), Bralon Taplin (46.67), Carlyle Roudette (46.50) and Aldrich Bailey, Jr. (46.99). They finished fourth in their section and fourth overall with a time of 3:07.03.

Arkansas won the final section of the 4 x 400 in a collegiate record of 3:03.50 over Florida’s 3:03.71 and a 3:05.13 from Florida State. The previous collegiate record was 3:03.51 set by Florida in 2005.

In the men’s 3,000 final Henry Lelei placed fifth in 7:49.80, the second fastest time ever at A&M. Lelei set the school record of 7:47.91 in qualifying for the NCAA Indoor meet.

The pace of the lead pack in the 3,000 went through the first 1,000 in 2:38 and crossed 2,000 meters in 5:16. Lelei was stationed in third place early on, and then dropped back to fifth. Later in the race he moved from seventh to fifth.

Arizona’s Lawi Lalang won the race in a meet record 7:45.94 with Arkansas’ Kemoy Campbell finishing second in 7:46.95. Eric Jenkins of Northeastern was originally second in 7:46.21, but was disqualified for impeding another runner.

The Aggie women’s 4 x 400 relay won its section in 3:34.11 and placed sixth overall. The A&M foursome included Kamaria Brown (52.65), Ibukun Mayungbe (53.14), LaKeidra Stewart (54.21) and Olivia Ekpone (54.11). Oregon claimed the first of three sections in the 4 x 400 with a 3:30.22 to win the event. Arkansas won the final section in 3:30.35 to place second overall.

Coming into this meet with a best of 44-2 in the triple jump, LaQue Moen-Davis fell short of that distance in placing 14th with a mark of 41-8.5 (12.71).